Hi everyone! My name is Cassadee and I'm new here. I enjoy baking, buying various kinds of lip smackers and then internally arguing with myself over which to try first, and making random duck referenced jokes. Sorry, every time I enter into an introduction I immediately feel like the world is a personals ad. As you can tell, I'm not your average author.
Writing is my passion. I am working on my first novel, but am no stranger to fan fiction. However, writing a television fan fiction is something I've yet to do. Usually I write musician ones where I can manipulate the person into who I see them as, instead of working with characters that have already been created and are well known. I also primarily write in first person narrative, so this is only my second shot at attempting third person. This whole venture is a challenge for me. I welcome any and all reviews and criticism. I appreciate it, so feel free to sound off. I'm not easily offended and take everything as a step towards making my writing better.
Just a few words about this fiction to get the story started. Criminal Minds is one of my favorite shows. I am working on getting each character down pat for this story. Reid is my favorite character, mostly because he's gentle and adorable, so this story is Reid centric, but also features the rest of the characters as well as a plot that ties in some past story arcs. I promise that I have an entire concept for this story mapped out and designed to play out a little at a time, so please bear with me. If some things don't make sense, I promise they will later down the line. My original character, Alona (Lo), comes somewhat shrouded in mystery for all her own reasons, so she, particularly, may seem inconsistent, but it will all pull together as you read further into the story. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I am friendly and don't bite.
It's probably worthy to note that the story picks up immediately after JJ leaves. I kind of went my own way with how that worked out, although it is similar to what Criminal Minds has decided to segue into. I originally wrote this three weeks ago and intended to post it, but didn't want to until I had the entire story mapped out and made sure it was exactly what I wanted first. I want to make this story as good as it can possibly be. As I said, constructive criticism is most certainly welcome, and if you like it, thank you very much.
I will try my best to update often. I'm in the middle of a three year battle with my health, which strongly affects the time I have to write. I promise that I will update as often as possible and not let the story fall wayward. I thank you for reading :)!
Chapter 1
Alona
It was a crisp fall day in Virginia, the trees just beginning to turn as a chill started to consider filling the air, but retreated just in time for morning coffee to take over the day. Federal Agent Dr. Spencer Reid removed himself from his vehicle and walked toward the entrance of the J. Edgar Hoover building. Today wasn't going to be an ordinary day. He ran over all plausible, explainable reasons in his head for knowing that so early in the day, and chalked it up to the logistics of pre-anticipation for the first day of work without his colleague, Jennifer Jareau. He wished she hadn't been forced away from the team, but there wasn't a thing he could do about it. He had researched all the possible routes and came up empty, which was a unique problem that rarely plagued his genius mind.
As he approached the building, minding his own business as normal, his eyes were drawn away from their place on the sidewalk and to a young women who was sitting on the edge of a large, concrete flower pot outside of the agents' entrance. If there was one thing Dr. Reid noticed, it was what was different or incorrect with any given situation. Finding what was normal in every situation came easy to Dr. Reid, but what didn't belong popped out. He knew immediately she did not belong. If not just for the simple fact that he had not seen her face around the bureau before, but because she was not dressed as a federal agent would be. Her white, ruffled lace top, light pink flowered skirt, brown cowboy boots and country bumpkin appearance, in contrast to her classic blonde hair that was littered gracefully with fiery red streaks, screamed nothing of someone who belonged. He would have remembered her.
He continued his approach to the building, debating if he should ask why she was there, curious. Instead, he decided to go about his business and not disrupt hers. It wasn't in his somewhat shy, socially awkward nature to interfere where he need not. He surmised by the way she was sipping her coffee, cup tilted fully back, that she had been there awhile and was at the bottom of her cup. If no one had approached her by now, there must be a reason for her to be there. What Dr. Reid didn't anticipate was what came next.
"Excuse me? Dr. Reid?" He looked away from her for only a few short seconds, but it was long enough for her to throw her coffee cup in the garbage aligning the sidewalk, and make it to his side. He didn't stop walking, but slowed down a good deal so that he could assess the situation.
"Yes?" His response came out in question form, not only because he was answering her question, but because he wasn't yet privileged to the information regarding how she knew who he was, or why she had been waiting to see him.
"I've been waiting for you. I really need to speak with you." Normally Dr. Reid would stop and take a moment just for her, but he simply did not have time today. There had been an abnormal traffic jam on his way to work and now he was just skidding in by the seat of his pants. He wasn't one to be late.
"I'm actually running late, but if you would like to make an appointment, you can do that at the service desk in the front of the building." Dr. Reid continued to talk, opening up the doors to the building. This did not deter the woman from following, only losing her pace for an instant to go in the door behind him.
"I don't have time to make an appointment, Dr. Reid. This can't wait." Her voice rang a mixture of collective panic. Realizing he was nearing the security check point, he stopped for the first time to face her, wanting only to reiterate his first suggestion. Once he notated her body language, however, he realized that the situation may very well be more urgent than a minute of his time would allow.
"I don't have time to talk to you right now. I'm sorry. But if you go to the service desk and tell them I'm expecting you then they can issue you the proper visitor's pass and clearance into the building. I'll meet you in my office." Dr. Reid found this reasonable, since he was already running late and lacking the authority to present her with the visitor's pass in which she would need to properly enter the federal building. Surely she could wait that long. As soon as he regained his motion toward the security check point, he found that she would not.
"I don't have time for that, either." The woman set her stuff on the xray scanner behind Dr. Reid's bag, turning to the security guard instantly after. "I'm with him." She was relentless, if nothing else.
The security guard caught Dr. Reid's eye, giving a look as if to ask him if this were true, or if he would like her removed from the premises. With a second thought and the knowledge that her body language read only as if this were important, and nothing with malice, he gave in. "She is."
"Thank you." She followed Dr. Reid through the metal detector, picking up her bag again just after his. He was less than thrilled to have an tag along that didn't follow by the rules, but twice as curious as he'd like to admit as to what it was she wanted that could not seem to, at least by her standards, wait.
The notion briefly passed that she was possibly a fan of his, and he knew all too well by now that none of his fans were normal. As much as this may apply to her, she passed the security checkpoint. Unless she was well trained in hand to hand combat, he still figured he stood a fighting chance. Maybe not literally, but he could always yell for someone stronger. A lot of people in this building carried guns.
Even though both were now inside, Dr. Reid knew that he couldn't just allow her to enter the BAU offices without getting her checked in. Now he was really going to be late, and he only hoped that she would be a good enough explanation, one in which Morgan wouldn't feel it necessary to add innuendo to top off an already uncomfortably mysterious situation.
"Now can we talk?" Things were not moving quickly enough. There was no foreplay that needed to be involved for the women, but it threw Dr. Reid off guard. He wanted nothing but a light introduction to lead him to where the situation would go. He needed to go in prepared, rarely footloose enough to cut to the chase.
"I have to get you a visitor's pass first. You're really not supposed to be in here without one, or back in this part of the building at all. I could get in a lot of trouble." Dr. Reid's love affair with following the rules did not irk the woman, and she followed behind him through a door and down a long, closed in hallway with no doors to the right or left. She only wished his lanky legs would pick up from their natural pace. She thrived in diving right in.
At the end of the long corridor was another door welcoming the two into the main entrance of the building. Dr. Reid immediately shot for the desk, his very own identification hanging on the front of his brown sweater vest.
"Hi. I need a visitors pass for her." With the lack of social manners needed for the situation, Dr. Reid pointed to the women next to him, not caring if he interrupted the work the secretary seemed to be doing on her computer. The mysterious woman didn't imagine this was abnormal for him.
"Sure thing, Agent Reid. I'm just going to take down her information..." Having not a minute to spare to deal with his, Dr. Reid cut her off.
"She's with me. She just needs a pass." The secretary opened her mouth to rebuttal, but thought the better of it. If Agent Reid said he knew her, she couldn't argue with that. He had been her for years and was an exemplary agent. The irritation in his voice also warded off all other thoughts of second guessing his normally polite demeanor.
"Sure. If you can just give me her name I'll issue her one right away. I just need it for our database and security purposes." This is where the woman found her place to interject, knowing Dr. Reid was sticking his neck out for her and making a strained process much easier. She didn't need to create a situation that raised any question marks.
"Alona Chressanthis." The secretary's eyes darted from their fixture on Dr. Reid, to the women. She was already suspicious, especially after the direction the pair had entered the lobby of the building from.
"Could you spell that, please?" As Alona did, the secretary's fingers tapped the keyboard cautiously, making sure to notate that the visitor was brought in with Agent Reid. She didn't want to take the downfall if something fishy was going on.
It took mere minutes for the visitor's pass to exchange hands, but those were a few minutes too long for Dr. Reid. Not even seconds after the pass had been handed over, he was on the move again, leaving Alona to stop fiddling with attaching the pass to her shirt and follow him. He retreated the way they had come, going back through the corridor, out the other side, and eventually reaching a set of elevators. He hit the up button. The elevator doors opened nearly immediately to the otherwise empty space, another indication of how late Dr. Reid was running. As they entered, he chose to strike up a conversation, finding that now nothing could make him any later, except the speed of the elevator.
"Alona, I have to ask, how is it that you knew who I was when I approached the building?" Once in the elevator, Dr. Reid pushed the button matching the floor they were going to and didn't bother to move away from the panel.
"You can call me Lo, and I Googled you." Her eyes diverted away from his as she spoke. She knew this wasn't exactly true. He didn't seem to be watching her at that moment, so she could only hope he didn't catch that. He was a profiler, a professional in reading body cues, after all.
"I've never heard the name Alona before. Is that even a real name?" To Dr. Reid, this wasn't an insensitive question. Since Alona had already answered his first question, one in which he had no reason to think twice about, but thought it may cement his initial thought of her being fan, he simply moved on to his next curiosity. He was always finding something to feed his mind with.
"It is if that's what people call me." She laughed, not meaning any sarcasm towards the doctor. "It's actually an old Hebrew name meaning Oak. It's the feminine version of the Hebrew name Alon. Lo is just the shortened version of it." Deep down, Lo was her own kind of profiling nerd. She knew Dr. Reid liked facts, and she liked to tell the ones she had learned to match wits with him. This just seemed like the perfect opportunity to make two worlds collide.
Dr. Reid took a but a second to take it all in. There was something coming over him. He hadn't met anyone quite like her. He could tell after a mere ten minutes of being around her, and her saying that made it even more apparent to him. Lo wasn't insulted, nor was she a sarcastic narcissist. She took the time to laugh it off and explain the name to him, teaching him something new. This was something most couldn't, or wouldn't do.
"Would it be okay if I called you Alona? Lo makes me think of the Biblical relevance of the word, which I doubt is what your parents intended when they named you." This, too, was something that wasn't thought out before said. It was okay by Lo, though, because she had all but expected the unexpected with him.
"Not unless you think I'm my grandmother. It was her name. And, for the record, my mom was the first to call me Lo." There was no way, she thought, that Dr. Reid could have more to say with the facts laid out in front of him. She was about to learn that being wrong sucked a little more than she would have liked it to.
"Do you maybe have a middle name?" She sighed loudly, the mild laughter filled with disbelief in her voice covered by the sound of the elevator door opening. He was definitely everything she was expecting and he didn't disappoint.
"I do." He had only ask if she had one, and she wasn't going to lead him down temptation's road with no way to reverse out of it if she could help it.
"What is it?" Dr. Reid was fully perplexed by her one sided answer. It was human nature for most to give information that wasn't ask, only implied. She was different. She answered only what was asked of her and volunteered nothing. It was her secretness that kept him intrigued.
"Larke, like the bird, but with an e." Through the entryway and into the doors of the BAU offices the pair walked, opening up Lo's world to a place she had went to bed dreaming about. The feeling was surreal, seeing the desks, the people, and absorbing the energy in the room. She had to stop to take it all in, but was left in the proverbial dust of Dr. Reid's haste to make it to his desk a little late, rather than stupendously late.
"Can I call you that, then?" Slightly exasperated by the cat and mouse game of wits that was being played against him, without him being scoffed at and anyone being put off, Dr. Reid tried one more time to find a middle ground that he could wrap his head around.
"Only if you value me as a stripper." Lo answered smoothly, a little smile crossing her face to let him know she was only joking. In reality, the name did remind her of a stripper's name, which is why she dropped letting anyone call her by that, like she used to prefer when she was a child.
"Actually, strippers are usually..." Just when the conversation was heating up, the intrigue finding its way into the minds of the unusual pair, they were interrupted by the sounds of the workday.
"Whoa! Hey now, what is all this talk I hear about strippers? I know she's a beautiful lady, but that's no way to talk in a federal office building." A tall, handsome, well built black man smooth talked his way into the conversation. Lo instantly liked him, seeing his playful nature with Dr. Reid was one similar to her own disposition with him, only with different overtones because of her sex. They were going to get along just fine.
"Morgan, this is Alona. Alona, this is Agent Morgan." In typical Dr. Reid fashion, he ignored Morgan's playful harassment and moved swiftly on with the day, logging himself in on the computer on his desk.
"Lo. I'm still working on him." Lo extended her hand to Morgan and he shook it. Then he chuckled to himself, glancing between Dr. Reid, whose eyes were fully fixed while his one finger typing on the keyboard of his computer, and Alona, who just rolled her eyes playfully.
"I hear that." Reid scoffed to himself, not quite getting the full spectrum of Morgan's laughable cut, but feeling the essence. "Reid, Hotch wants to see you in his office. Something about needing your freaky, inhuman reading skills to go through JJ's case files."
"Excuse me just one minute. Sorry." Dr. Reid started to flit away before Lo had a chance to protest, but she did attempt to call after his fast moving body. Her plea fell on deaf ears. And now, out of all times, he finally decided to walk quickly. Figures, she thought.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he always runs away from people who tell him they have something important to talk to him about." Her face turned into a half smile, trying to understand how she could have missed the flightiness that was his personality, although she should have really known considering the information she had on him. Rarely do people of his genius function outside of their own realm of thought per the moment. She was but an interruption to that.
"You'll have to excuse him. He doesn't do life outside of work well." This indicated to Lo that Morgan was suggesting something, and it was something she would have to find a way to correct. Luckily, he gave her a segue. "So, how do you know Reid?"
"I don't, really. I just need to talk to him about something, and coincidentally enough, it has everything to do with his work and he's still running from me." Feeling like she stood out standing in the open office, Lo attempted to find a place to sit. Dr. Reid's desk looked like a good place, but she gathered his quarks and thought the better of it.
"Well, if it helps you've got me standing right here and I promise I won't take off on you." Morgan crossed his arms and sat on Dr. Reid's desk. Dang it. Lo wished she would have just done it when she had the chance, but now there was Morgan's rear end, taking up the better part of it and now if she were to try to sit there, too, it would just be awkward.
"I appreciate it, but this is something I can only talk to Dr. Reid about." Lo glanced into the direction where he had gone, being able to see him through the open door of Hotch's office. She smiled a little to herself, hoping Morgan hadn't caught that, but he had.
"It seems like some pretty personal business. And, for the record, you can probably drop the doctor part. I guarantee you it makes him uncomfortable coming out of you." It was clear to the both of them that this phrase held double meaning. Lo wanted nothing but to ignore it, but she knew she had to watch her words and handle it otherwise.
"Will do." She looked to Morgan and gave a little shrug, and then tried to change the subject, making her case seem worse in the process. "You know, he's not exactly what I was expecting."
"Let me guess, you were expecting a well adjusted, older, beefy federal agent with a brooding, sexy side like you see in the movies?" Shaking her head, Lo could do nothing but laugh. She definitely liked Morgan. He, too, was everything she thought he'd be and more.
"No. I was expecting a nerd, complete with a bad hairdo, big black rimmed glasses and a tie over that sweater vest." This time it was Morgan's turn to burst out laughing.
"He ditched two out of the three things a few months ago. He must have forgotten his tie today." Then Reid was everything she had expected, only more grown up, which made sense. Even without the glasses and the hair, she didn't think his tall, slender stature would be so appealing to her.
"Actually, I didn't forget it. I just couldn't find the one that color coordinated with this sweater vest, so I chose not to wear one so that I didn't stand out." Reid had snuck up on them, making his presence known at the side of his own desk. Morgan stood up, anticipating the leering that told him he was sitting on some important paperwork.
"Just a tip, you might not want to say that around pretty girls." Lo turned her head as to not to seem so shy as she blushed a little. What Reid lacked in social graces, Morgan more than made up for.
"Why not?" His face read of total cluelessness. His eyes were emptily curious as to what he said wrong. This time Lo kept her head turned for another reason. It wasn't nice to laugh at someone.
"Because you might insinuate that you bat for the other team." Morgan leaned in and whispered, but it was loud enough for Lo to barely hear. To her, this was like a really great, unscripted comedy show.
"What team? I don't even like football." Morgan and Lo's heads both dropped into their hands at the same time. Lo's because her laughter was increasing and had to be more pointedly stifled, and Morgan in disbelief. It's not like boy genius hadn't been to a baseball game before.
"Oh gees. Kid, you're on your own." Morgan's arm reached out and his hand squeezed Reid's shoulder before pulling away. As he began to walk away, passing Lo, he gave her a few last words, with a smile on his face, too. "It was nice meeting you, Lo. Good luck with that one."
Without a gap of a moment to spare, Reid chimed in. "Morgan! Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Reid put his arms out, defeated, confused and unsure of himself in front of a girl he would have otherwise liked to come across as professional and all knowing in all things of pop culture. Instead, he did the next best thing he knew how to do, which would otherwise be everyone else's worst last ditch idea. "Do you know what he meant?"
Over her laughter, Lo attempted to answer as best and direct as she could. "Um...batting is a baseball reference, but that has nothing to do with that he said. When you bat for the other team it means you're gay."
"Gay? I'm not...why would me explaining my reasoning for not wearing a tie make him think I'm gay?" Befuddled and slightly shaken with the revelation that someone thought he was something he wasn't, mixed with the knowledge that he couldn't wrap his mind around, took him back a few pegs.
"He doesn't. It's just that straight guys normally don't talk about color coordinating their clothing. They usually don't care." It was tough for Lo to keep a straight face. And she hated to admit it, but Reid's naivety for the norm made him appealing to her; sweet and adorable even. Everything she had heard about the kind, gentle, misunderstood person he was had been correct.
"Why not?" Lo had promised herself that if she was going to have to have a meeting with Reid, she was going to give him what most people don't; an explanation for those things he didn't understand. But, quite frankly, she had run out of answers. This was border-lining the age old question of "why is the sky blue?" Honestly, he probably already knew the answer to that, where most others wouldn't. He was in the reverse of common human nature.
"You know what, Dr. Reid, can we just maybe talk about what I came here to talk to you about? It's really important." Lo veered the subject back on course slowly, not wanting to insult him one bit. As much as she could see herself getting mixed up in this pseudo family all too easily, she had to stay right on track with the business at hand; the reason she had flown hundreds of miles to be here.
"Yeah. Yeah, we can do that. I would prefer if you called me Spencer, though. I feel odd, for some reason, about you calling me Dr. Reid. Usually my colleagues are the only ones who call me that. If you're not comfortable with that, you could always call me Agent Reid, but that doesn't sound much better to me. I guess Reid is acceptable, too, but that's really, purely an inter-office reference. So really I'd prefer that you just call me Spencer...if that's okay with you." The real reason for this was that the two were somewhat similar in age, and she was, as he admitted only to himself, very attractive. As much as she seemed to be here for business purposes, he still didn't want her to get used to seeing him as just an FBI agent. Secretly, inside of his very own subconscious, he wanted to be seen as a regular, every day man, and not just for what he did or the quarks he had. And, in all fairness, Morgan had already warned her not to call him Dr. Reid, although she had slipped up by habit, but she didn't suppose Spencer was what he had in mind, either.
"Okay...Spencer it is." She felt eyes on her back and turned around to face Morgan, who was at the desk across from his. Morgan had dropped what he was doing at hearing this, knowing of only a handful of people who were allowed to call him any form of his first name on a regular basis, two being Lila Archer and J.J. And most of which he either was trying to identify with in a work situation involving a victim, or those who with he had some sort of connection that his mind couldn't explain to him. This was looking like the latter. Lo tried to ignore the obvious meaning of his stare and the discomfort in knowing also what it meant, and turned her attention back to Dr. Reid...Reid...Spencer, rather. "Spencer, is there somewhere that we could talk alone?"
It wasn't that Lo wanted to dig the situation further in a hole. In fact, that was the last thing she wanted. But what she wanted more than anything was to talk to Spencer alone, because she knew that's what she, without a doubt, had to do. Once he knew what she had to present him with, he could handle it accordingly from there, but she had to give him a chance to know the situation first. If they were to talk where they were now, word of the it would spread like wildfire before he had a chance to think. The previous moment with Morgan was proof of that.
"I guess we could use JJ's office." That was all he said before removing himself from his desk chair where he had sat just moments earlier in anticipation of getting comfortable for what Lo had to say. She followed behind. Once in the office, Spencer allowing her through the door first, he closed it. Here and now was the moment of truth.
"I got this letter in the mail yesterday. The outside was addressed to me, but the inside to you." Without giving Reid another chance to take off on another tangent or trip to someone else's office for work purposes, she reached in her purse and pulled out the one thing that tied her to the place she was at today. Reid took it from her.
"No return address. Was there anything else with it?" Reid quizzically studied the envelope, not looking at the contents, but for evidence of the sender and the reason for it being sent. He found nothing, but Lo was still glad she brought the envelope.
"No, just the letter. I don't even know how someone got my address. I'm not publicly listed in the phonebook." This was for a reason. Lo did everything she could to keep her personal whereabouts away from the public. She had more enemies than most, but not because she had made them. It was the downfall of her family life.
"There's literally hundreds of ways someone could have gotten it, especially with the internet. The better question is, why you?" Although she knew the answer, she knew that Reid couldn't know that, so she just shrugged. She was a horrible liar, but a simple gesture seemed to placate him. "Have you read it?"
"I have." At this, Reid opened the envelope for himself, unfolding the letter. There wasn't much to go on, seeing as the entire letter had been pasted together from words out of newspapers to make its point. He would have the letter checked for fingerprints, but if someone went to all this trouble to piece together a letter, as opposed to handwriting it where the writing could be matched back to them, or printing it out on a computer knowing the printer could be successfully matched, they were also far too smart to leave them. The only thing more important than the outside of the letter was the words on the inside.
The moonlight brings forth terror to the dolls who enter the night. The monsters are real. They're alive. They're waiting. They can't be saved. All you can save is her. But it comes at a price. I'll trade your life for hers, and Gideon also dies.
Reid read over it a few times, trying to wrap his mind around it, fear entering his body. The tone of the note was one he knew, the subject, too. But more than that, it played on his own demons. It dredged up a part of his past that he had fought to get over; the loss of Agent Gideon, the only real father figure he had ever known. And now, here it was being played out across the page. Without a doubt the letter was meant for him, and someone had his number. He also knew that the promise in the letter of saving the unidentified her in exchange for him was a lie. With a formidable, old opponent, he knew if they tried to appease the letter writer believing that he could save her, it was likely they would all go down with the night.